The teen, appearing to be talking on her cell phone as she strolled along the sidewalk, suddenly was swallowed up into a sinkhole. A taxi driver driving by happened to see the incident and pulled over to help.

Viewing the footage posted by the Telegraph, it appears the girl had no warning she was about to disappear into the ground beneath her.

After she fell, the taxi driver halts his car and peers in. When he has no response, he began to climb down into the 20-foot (six meters) deep sinkhole, grasping a cable that was located underneath the sidewalk.

"I called out to her but she didn't respond. After I shook her a little, she came to," said Wang Wei, a taxi driver in the northern city of Xi'an. "The dirt kept showering down on us and the kid couldn't stop crying."

Man who climbed into sinkhole to save teen that fell through the sidewalk

Telegraph

Shortly after the fall, other passers-by and firefighters arrived on the scene and the firefighters sent a ladder down into the hole. Wang said the ladder was "moving about" and this frightened the teen. He sent her up first and he followed behind. The pair was able to climb out as rescuers assisted them in coming out of the sinkhole.

NBC News indicated authorities said the ground underneath the sidewalk had been eroded by water, creating an unstable situation.

Reportedly the girl and the taxi driver are okay. KVUE reported the girl's family was able to use the video footage to track down the teen's rescuer and thank him for his heroic actions.